September 2025 - Lily Kate France
September’s Beanie Brigade is all about bright, happy knitting. This month’s hat uses Juicy Worsted, 100% merino wool superwash yarn with 218 yards of soft, bouncy squish. It’s a dream to knit with, smooth, easy on the hands, and perfect for showing off the texture in Lily Kate France’s Checkerplate Hat.
This months colorway, “Check It,” is inspired by the hat’s checked texture and the way this highlighter yellow really stands out. It’s bright and bold without being too over the top. The color that makes the hat feel lively and fun, and adds a little spark to your hat knitting!
We are excited to share with you a discussionwith Lily about her inspiration for the Checkerplate Hat and the wider story behind her designs and creative process.
Checkerplate Hat Pattern
September Designer: Lily Kate France
Q: Hi Lily, thank you for joining us as September’s Beanie Brigade Featured Designer! To start, can you take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers?
A: Thank you for featuring me! I’m a 27 year old knitwear designer based in North West
England. I was taught to knit at age 8, designed my first patterns at 11, and have never
looked back.
Q:Your patterns are often described as clean, elegant, and refined. On your website, you mention that while you love being a knitter, you’d “rather my knits not actually look handmade at first glance”. Can you tell us more about how you achieve that polished, designer feel while still keeping your patterns engaging and fun to knit?
A: Every time someone describes my patterns that way, I feel like I must be doing something right! I’d say the main attributes of an expensive-looking garment are the finish and the fit. Anyone who’s knit my patterns will know I love a short row - there’s no chance I’d make a garment without carefully considered shoulder shaping, for example. Details like double knit edgings make all the difference, too - they’re time-consuming, there’s no doubt about it, but the crisp neat finish is worth it.
Q: Your blog has taken us around the world with you! What’s the most memorable, or perhaps the strangest, place you’ve ever found yourself knitting?
A: A rooftop bar in Vienna and the top of a mountain in the Lake District are a couple of
favourites.
Q: On Instagram, we’ve loved following your journey of restoring your 300-year- old English cottage. How has that renovation process influenced your knitting and design work? Has the space (or garden!) sparked any new ideas in your recent work?
A: For sure! Me and my house have become one entity. It’s actually been fun to turn my hand to something else for a change and use the creative parts of my brain for decor rather than just wearables. It’s interesting to see how many of my older knits look right at home here though - the house just suits me and my style! Living here has re-ignited my love for slightly more romantic, feminine pieces with a nod towards vintage.
Q: You recently shared an “introduce yourself” post on Instagram, summarizing your journey from learning to knit at 10 to becoming a full-time designer. Could you walk us through the highlights of that journey?
A: I designed my first sweater as an awkwardly tall pre-teen armed with a couple of books about knitwear design and a whole lot of gumption. I released a couple of accessory patterns on Ravelry, but my first garment pattern was actually in The Knitter magazine after a chance encounter with its then-editor. Over the following years my designs appeared in a few other publications, including Vogue Knitting, and I shared others on Ravelry.
During my later teens I continued knitting and designing for myself but stepped back from publishing patterns whilst I focused on my A-levels, blogging, starting university, modelling, and various other freelance roles. In 2019 I started my LilyKateMakes Instagram account and decided to re-join the online knitting world, which turned out to be perfect timing since all other work ground to a halt in early 2020 for obvious reasons. My business grew quite rapidly and after completing my part-time degree, there was no doubt in my mind that designing would be my full-time job.
Q: In this same post, you talked a little bit about getting your degree in Astronomy and mentioned that you think the skills you learned while getting this degree have helped you in your designing and grading work. In what ways do you think this is the case?
A: Designing is incredibly mathematical - at least the way I do things! Being able to visualise the shape that will be created by using short rows / increases / pleats in a certain way uses the same part of my brain that my maths and physics exams did. Doesn’t mean I don’t end up frogging and starting from scratch half the time though!
Q: Before the pandemic, you had done some work as a model as well! Do you have any tips to share for those of us looking to strike a good pose for our Ravelry projectpages?
A: A few tips I always share when taking photos with friends:
1. Lighting is everything! Soft, natural light is always best, like outdoors in a shady spot
(not in bright sunshine) or by a window. Backlighting (standing with the sun/light behind you) is great for a hazy artsy effect (hello sheer mohair) but terrible for detail
(your cabled sweater will be lost).
2. Imagine lifting your ears up! It’s a great way to quickly improve your posture without
looking like you’re poking your nose to the sky or uncomfortably pulling your shoulders back.
3. As a general rule, if it bends, bend it. Elbows, wrists, hips - a photo with subtle
movement looks far more interesting than standing straight on with your arms by your
side.
Q: You took over your mom’s knitting blog at just 15, which must have been an
incredible learning experience. From your unique vantage point, what’s the biggest change you’ve seen in the knitting world over the past decade? Is there anything from the 2010s knitting scene that you particularly miss? Or anything you’re glad has evolved?
A: Patterns are generally more size-inclusive now which is obviously a change for the better.
Q: The Checkerplate Hat, the featured pattern for our September Beanie Brigade, is part of a small collection alongside the Checkerplate Tee and Sweater. What is it about this motif that keeps drawing you back? What makes it so versatile across different knits?
A: Who knew a whole pattern series would develop from an offhand comment about my friend Naomi’s accidental Checkerplate sweater? (Naomi’s hilarious short story involving a handknit, a makeshift dye bucket, and scorchmarks from the bed of a truck in the Moroccan desert is included with the Checkerplate Sweater pattern).
I like that the Checkerplate stitch pattern gives a similar vibe to traditional cables, but with a diagonal element rather than the conventional vertical lines or horizontal panels. I had a brainwave to keep the pattern layout the same but swap the twisted stitches for eyelets, and the Checkerplate Lace tee was born. Many lace tees have quite a frilly, dainty vibe, and I enjoy the contrast of the industrial inspiration with this one.
The diagonal element also aligns well with raglan shaping on garments and crown shaping on hats, so that’s particularly satisfying. There may be more Checkerplate patterns to come, watch this space!
September Beanie Brigade Pre-Order
~~
Lily's Socials